ALG supports Katko amendment to stop IRS intimidation

June 13, 2016, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in support of an amendment to the Department of Treasury appropriations bill that prohibits the Internal Revenue Service from hiring outside individuals or firms to take sworn testimony, or to conduct examination work involving confidential taxpayer information:

“Representative John Katko’s proposed amendment to the Department of Treasury appropriations bill rolls back an IRS regulation that further weaponizes that agency’s ability to intimidate companies or individuals, and must be included into the bill.

“President Obama’s Internal Revenue Service’s abuse of taxpayer privacy and the politicization of the Agency has been on-going for years. Representative Katko’s amendment would prohibit the IRS from hiring outside individuals or firms to take sworn testimony, or to conduct examination work involving confidential taxpayer information.

“Taxpayer records are supposed to be confidential under penalty of a federal felony for releasing them for a reason, as even the hint of an IRS investigation can cause stock prices to plummet and do heavy damage to a company’s reputation. Yet, the IRS has skated this prohibition by allowing outside law firms to conduct investigations on their behalf targeting corporations, and Katko’s amendment would stop this new Obama Administration practice.

“Very few things can have the same chilling and intimidating effect on a corporation as an IRS investigation. Americans for Limited Government strongly urges the House Rules Committee to allow the Katko amendment to be voted on by the full House of Representatives. It is a common sense rollback of an Obama Administration regulation that threatens the legal prohibitions against IRS disclosure of investigation targets, and would end one area where IRS intimidation has a real impact.”